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Keller Says 'N.Y. Times' Must Look Beyond Its Urban, Liberal Base
Editor and Publisher ^ | 06/26/05 | E&P Staff

Posted on 06/26/2005 12:19:02 PM PDT by Pikamax

Keller Says 'N.Y. Times' Must Look Beyond Its Urban, Liberal Base

By E&P Staff

Published: June 26, 2005 3:00 PM ET

NEW YORK In a lengthy memo published the newspaper's Web site, Bil Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, announced several new policies in response to a recent report by the paper's Credibility Committee. Among them is a fresh attempt to diversify the Times' staff and viewpoints, and not in the usual racial or gender ways, but in political, religious and cultural areas as well.

The aim, he wrote, is "to stretch beyond our predominantly urban, culturally liberal orientation, to cover the full range of our national conversation."

The point, Keller wrote, "is not that we should begin recruiting reporters and editors for their political outlook; it is part of our professional code that we keep our political views out of the paper. The point is that we want a range of experience. We have a recruiting committee that tracks promising outside candidates, and that committee has already begun to consider ways to enrich the variety of backgrounds of our reporters and editors.

"First and foremost we hire the best reporters, editors, photographers and artists in the business. But we will make an extra effort to focus on diversity of religious upbringing and military experience, of region and class."

Keller said there had already been successes, namely, the coverage of conservatives by David Kirkpatrick and Jason DeParle, and a number of recent Magazine pieces. "I intend to keep pushing us in this direction," Keller declared.

He also said that he endorsed the committee’s recommendation "that we cover religion more extensively.... This is important to us not because we want to appease believers or pander to conservatives, but because good journalism entails understanding more than just the neighborhood you grew up in."

E&P will cover other aspects of Keller's memo on Monday.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: billkeller; diversity; keller; liberalmedia; media; mediabias; newyorkgaytimes; nyt; shiiteforbrains
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To: ncountylee
“A blog is still a view of the world through a pinhole,” ...Bill Keller 2/17/05

The NYT is a view of the world through Bil Keller's a**hole!

41 posted on 06/26/2005 1:46:17 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'chaim!)
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To: Pikamax
it is part of our professional code that we keep our political views out of the paper

Uh, yeah, right Bill, whatever you say...

42 posted on 06/26/2005 1:52:40 PM PDT by The Electrician ("Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase.")
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To: goldstategop; fporretto; walford; Natural Law; Old Professer; RJCogburn; Jim Noble; hotpotato; ...
The point, Keller wrote, "is not that we should begin recruiting reporters and editors for their political outlook; it is part of our professional code that we keep our political views out of the paper.
. . . and the fact that you think you possibly could - never mind think that you actually do - " keep our political views out of the paper" is sufficient to assure that you in fact project insufferably selfrighteous leftism.

O'Sullivan's Law

John O'Sullivan, columnist and former editor of National Review offers this proposed Sullivan's First Law: "All organizations that are not actually right wing will over time become left wing."
The point is that we want a range of experience. We have a recruiting committee that tracks promising outside candidates, and that committee has already begun to consider ways to enrich the variety of backgrounds of our reporters and editors.
But that fails to work in practice, for the simple reason that you are recruiting "good" journalists - and your idea of a good journalist is the root of the problem, recruit them in whatever city and of whatever color you will. Journalism is superficial because of its deadlines, negative because of its imperative to attract attention, and arrogant because it believes in its own virtue ("objectivity").

Arrogant, superficial negativity is cynicism. When you are cynical yourself, and you are trying to hire good cynics, it's remarkably unilikely that you will hire people who are not leftists.

Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate

43 posted on 06/26/2005 3:03:06 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: Pikamax
The pogrom begins.

Well, the lefties in Europe certainly were showing the way for the latest round of antisemitism.

44 posted on 06/26/2005 3:13:58 PM PDT by muawiyah (q)
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To: Pikamax

Sorry "Bil", but all that is WAY too little, MUCH too late. Your soapbox is bleeding and even Soros' money can't prop your prostitute of a rag up forever. "Credibility Committee"---BWAHAAHAAAAA!!!


45 posted on 06/26/2005 3:27:37 PM PDT by Surtur (Wal-mart...walnuts, Oprah...Uma, coincidence, I think not.)
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To: ncountylee
“A blog is still a view of the world through a pinhole,” he said, noting that it can sometimes fall as low as being a “one man circle jerk.”

As opposed to the group variety currently practiced by the Times' editorial board?
As for the Times-owned Boston Globe, what they practice can only be done in a straight line.

46 posted on 06/26/2005 3:35:56 PM PDT by andy58-in-nh
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To: Pikamax
"But we will make an extra effort to focus on diversity of religious upbringing..."

Not diversity of religion, just diversity of religious upbringing. So they'll still only hire atheists, they'll just drop the requirement that applicants' parents be atheists too.

47 posted on 06/26/2005 3:48:08 PM PDT by Fabozz
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To: Pikamax
because good journalism entails understanding more than just the neighborhood you grew up in

Funny. I thought "diversity" was the holy word of the Times.


This is the only neighborhood the Times will ever know until it dies, hopefully soon.

Keller is an idiot chasing his own tail.
48 posted on 06/26/2005 5:18:04 PM PDT by Bars4Bill
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To: Pikamax; Landru; bert; an amused spectator; weegee
Onward through the fog Bil; onward through the fog.

.

49 posted on 06/26/2005 7:58:06 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: Kay Syrah; Landru
Heart of Redness

Har! I agree. One of the funniest pieces I've ever read. Thanks for the belly laugh.

FGS

50 posted on 06/26/2005 8:05:31 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
John O'Sullivan, columnist and former editor of National Review offers this proposed Sullivan's First Law: "All organizations that are not actually right wing will over time become left wing."

The continuation of his statement:

"I cite as supporting evidence the ACLU, the Ford Foundation, and the Episcopal Church. The reason is, of course, that people who staff such bodies tend to be the sort who don't like private profit, business, making money, the current organization of society, and, by extension, the Western world. At which point Michels's Iron Law of Oligarchy takes over — and the rest follows.

Do you think his simplistic reasoning sufficiently explains the phenomenon? For example, the "news" industry; where for many years the left and right fought it out in the dailys and weeklys? Only to find the "progressives" virtually in control of the "news" we must tolerate today.

FGS

51 posted on 06/26/2005 8:27:56 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: fporretto; walford; Natural Law; Old Professer; RJCogburn; Jim Noble; hotpotato; JoeGar; ...
Do you think [O'Sullivan's] simplistic reasoning sufficiently explains the phenomenon?
IMHO:
Free commercial journalism, under competitive pressure, will bully society at large.
Journalism is superficial because of its deadlines, negative for the same reason that the boy cried "wolf" - and in love with its PR power. Each individual journalist both loves his own PR power and fears the PR power of journalism as a whole.

That is why journalists are bullies - and why it requires courage to take the positive, long-range perspective of conservatism. Organizations for conservative purposes will therefore be bullied - and given dismissive labels such as "right wing" - by journalism.

Organizations which do not have explicitly conservative purposes will therefore distance themselves from conservative organizations to gain access to the protection of the cowardly, bullying herd of journalists and fellow travelers. Sullivan's First Law: "All organizations that are not actually right wing will over time become left wing" follows.


52 posted on 06/27/2005 1:16:10 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Media bias bump.


53 posted on 06/27/2005 3:08:35 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Media bias bump.


54 posted on 06/27/2005 3:11:52 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: Pikamax
Well, unlike so many failing companies who haven't a clue, it appears that the editor at least has an idea of what's wrong. Now lets see what if anything he does about it.
55 posted on 06/27/2005 3:16:15 AM PDT by fso301
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To: Pikamax

Sounds like they'll be presenting the war from the enemy's bunker.


56 posted on 06/27/2005 8:18:43 AM PDT by Old Professer (As darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good; innocence is blind.)
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To: Pikamax

"is not that we should begin recruiting reporters and editors for their political outlook; it is part of our professional code that we keep our political views out of the paper. "
lol man you did not say that this was SATIRE ;)


57 posted on 06/27/2005 8:20:42 AM PDT by DM1
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To: Pikamax
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, announced several new policies in response to a recent report by the paper's Credibility Committee. Among them is a fresh attempt to diversify the Times' staff and viewpoints, and not in the usual racial or gender ways, but in political, religious and cultural areas as well.

There's a huge lesson here. The Times is learning that being a liberal propaganda paper can have economic consequences. That's the only way that the various MSM outlets will ever go back to reporting "news" as opposed to slanted opinions as facts.

58 posted on 06/27/2005 8:25:10 AM PDT by An Old Marine
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion; ForGod'sSake; scholar
"Bil Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, *announced*...in response to...the paper's Credibility Committee."

:o)

Sorry gentlemen.
What I do now I am compelled to do.

>*click*<

... {y'all were hung-up on} ;^)

59 posted on 06/28/2005 7:24:21 AM PDT by Landru (Indulgences: 2 for a buck.)
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